Legal glitch over miners' fight

Legal glitch over miners' fight

Police and pickets tumble in a confrontation outside the Orgreave coking plant

We need to look at the various acts and what the regulations were back then and whether we have any jurisdiction now.

IPCC spokesman Ian Christon

Miners at Orgreave, South Yorks, said they were beaten with truncheons during a picket in 1984.

But police claimed the men had attacked first and evidence was allegedly fabricated as they tried to bring prosecutions.

A year later 95 miners were acquitted after police evidence was discredited.

Following a recent TV report, South Yorkshire Police referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over miners’ claims of assault, perjury, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office. Lawyers at the IPCC are now trying to determine whether they have jurisdiction in the case.

At the time of the Battle of Orgreave the IPCC’s predecessor, the Police Complaints Authority, did not exist.

And only recently has emergency legislation to help its Hillsborough probe started to go through to enable it to investigate claims previously looked at by the PCA.

It is possible that attempts may have to be made to extend that law to the PCA’s predecessor, the Police Complaints Board. A totally new law might even be needed.

IPCC spokesman Ian Christon said: “We need to look at the various acts and what the regulations were back then and whether we have any jurisdiction now.”